Automatic vending-machine.



C. A. MELCHERT. AUTOMATIC VENDING MACHINE.

LZQQQQQ. 19M. Patented Mar. 27, 1917.

2 SHEETS SHEET I.

C. A. MELCHERT. AUTOMATIC VENDING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED DEC. 7. 1914. LQQQAQO. Patented Mar. 27,1917.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

IINI'IED SEAS PATENT OFFIQE.

CHARLES A. MELCI-IERI, OF KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI, ASSIGNOR TO AUTOMATICMACHINE MANUFACTURING 00., OF KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI, A CORPORATION OFMISSOURI.

AUTOMATIC VENDING-MACHINE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 2'7, 191W.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES A. MnLo'HER'r, a citizen of the UnitedStates, residing at Kansas City, in the county of Jackson and State ofMissouri, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in AutomaticVending-Machines; and I do declare the following to be a full, clear,and exact description of the invention, such as will enable othersskilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same,reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters andfigures of reference marked thereon, which form a part of thisspecification.

My invention relates to automatic vending machines, and has for itsprincipal object to provide a device of this character wherein vendiblecommodities may be contained in separate compartments and locked withinthe device until released to a purchaser upon the insertion of asuitable coin.

It is also an object of the invention to provide a device comprisingmeans for confine ing articles within the commodity compart ment butwhich when actuated to release the articles will remain in inoperativeposition until the locking mechanism is operated by a suitable key andthereby obviate unauthorized refilling and warn against an attemptedpurchase from an empty compartment.

In accomplishing these and other objects of the invention I haveprovided improved details of structure, the preferred forms of which areillustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein 1-- Figure I is aperspective view of an automatic vending machine constructed accordingto my invention, showing the trap for one of the compartments in idleposition.

Fig. II is an enlarged rear perspectiveof a part of the device.

Fig. III is a vertical section of the device, showing one of thecompartment units in functional position.

Fig. IV is a similar view showing the compartment and cash boX open, andillustrating the use of the key for releasing the cash box.

Fig. V is a rear perspective of a part of the device, showing one of thecoin chutes and compartment trap with the coin-con.- trolled mechanism.

Fig. VI is a view of one of the coin chutes and its trap controllingmechanism in released position, and illustrating the method ofresetting.

Fig. VII is a detail perspective view of the cash box lock.

Referring more in detail to the parts:

1 designates a casing which is preferably constructed of metal and isadapted for mounting on a wall, so that the articles to be sold mav beeasily seen and the device positioned for easy access by a prospectivepurchaser.

T he casing comprises a body portion 2 which may be provided with a back3 and has a front a for inc-losing the coin-controlled mechanism andcash receptacle. The upper portion 5 of the front a also serves as theback of a commodity compartment section that extends forwardly from thefront of the casing and is fitted into separate chambers by divisionplates 6;v the lower edge of the part 5 being set forwardly from thelower portion of the front 4 to form a shoulder 7 for a purposepresently set forth.

The commodity section 8 has a front face 9 provided with glass-coveredopenings 10 through which the articles contained within the bins may bedisplayed, and with panels 11 hearing the names of the articles and anyother information it mav be desired to impart; the entire bottom of thecompartment section being open so that thearticles may be inserted intothe respective bins from beneath.

In order to support the articles within the bins I provide a trap door13 for each compartment. such a door being preferably hinged on a commonrod 14 that is mounted on thefront lower edge of the compartment sectionand extends entirely across the device; the rear edge of each of saidtraps being preferably reinforced, as at 15, and provided with a slot 16(Figs. II and V) into which a latch (hereinafter mentioned) may take tosupport the trap in functional position.

The bottom of the casing 1 is projected forwardly to form a shelf 18upon which articles dropped from the several compartment bins may becaught when their traps are tripped to release the articles.

The mechanism for locking the traps in functional position comprises aseparate coin chute 20 for each compartment; the upper end of whichextends through the front member 5 and through the upper end of thecommodity compartment to a slot 21 5 in the commodity section front 9directly above the window and name panel on a compartment controlled bythe mechanism that is operable from a coin falling through therespective coin chute. Each coin chute terminates at about the level ofthe bottom of the commodity bin and, pivotally mounted on said chute isa latch 23, the lower end of which is provided with a forwardly directedhook 24 that projects through a slot 25 in the front 4 and is adapted totake into the slot 16 in the respective compartment trap 13 to hold thetrap in closed position; the latch 23 being normally, yieldinglytensioned away from its trap by a spring 26, one end of which isconnected with the latch and the other with the coin chute in order toautomatically rock the latch and release the trap when a coin isinserted into the proper chute.

In order to hold the trap closed so that it may support an article to besold, I provide the trip 27 which is pivotally mounted on the coin chuteand has a lip 28 on one end projected into a slot 29 in the coin chute;the projecting position being maintained by a spring 30 that isconnected with the trip and with the coin chute, and the lip beinginclined when in normal position so that a coin dropping through thechute will strike the inclined lip and rock the trip against the tensionof its spring.

The opposite arm of the trip 27 projects forwardly along an ear 31 onthe latch 23 and is provided with a primary tooth 32 and a secondarytooth 33 adapted for stepped engagement with the latch ear.

The detail construction of the latch 23 comprises the hanger 34 which ispivotally mounted on an car 35 on the coin chute and has a rearwardlydirected lower portion 36 provided with the stop ear 31 for engagementwith the trip teeth and also with a laterally directed lip 37 at aboutits longitudinal center.

Pivotally mounted on the hanger 34, below the lip 37, is an arm 39having a laterally turned upper end 40 with which the spring 26 isconnected, and having a latch tooth 24 at its lower end.

lVith this construction, when the parts are in set position, the tripmember has its lip 28 projected into the chute slot and its primarytooth in engagement with the latch ear 31, so that the latch hanger isheld in its forward position with the spring 26 under tension. Thespring being connected with the upper end of the arm 39, the upper endof the arm is held against the hanger a lip 37 and. the latch toothwithin the slot in the article supporting trap 13, but when the trip 27is rocked by a coin, the notched arm is raised so that the spring pullsthe latch backwardly and removes the latch tooth from the hanger so thatthe latter may fall.

After the latch mechanism has been automatically actuated through theintermediacy of a coin the spring 26 holds the latch away from thelocking position so that the trap may be swung up to normal positionwithout reengaging the latch; in this way insuring against unauthorizedrefilling or resetting of the device, and warning a possible purchaserthat the bin is empty.

To reset the latch mechanism it is only necessary to project a hook 41(Fig. VI) through the slot 25 to engage the latch and pull the sameforwardly against the tension of the spring 26; the trip movingautomatically to position for engagement of the primary notch with thelatch hanger car.

It is apparent that after the latch is set, the trap may be swung up toposition and will displace the latch against the tension of its springto relock the parts; the upper end of the latch arm being free to moveforwardly as it is positively held only against rearward movement by thelip 37 In order to collect the coins I provide troughs 43 which extendfrom the ends of the casing toward the center at an incline so thatcoins dropped through the chutes will fall into the troughs and becarried to a cash box 44.

The cash box 44 is pivotally mounted at the front of the casing and isadapted to tip outwardly (Fig. IV) so that a person may collect coinsfrom the front of the device.

In order to lock the box I provide its upper edge with a rearwardlyprojecting socket member 45 which is adapted to take the end of a bolt46 that is slidably mounted in a guide 47 on the inner face of the front4 and is connected with the rear arm 48 of a bell-crank lever 49 whichis pivotally mounted in a bracket 50 on the front member 5; the arm 48having a spring 51 which yield ingly holds the same in its lowerposition to retain the locking bar in place. The front member 5 has aslot 53 above the bracket 50 to receive a key 54 so that the latter mayengage abell crank lever to rock the same and lift the rocking bar outof the door socket.

In using the device, presuming the parts to be constructed and assembledas described, with the latch mechanism set to hold the traps, and withthe traps open, articles to be sold are placed in the bins from thebottom and the traps swung upwardly to close the bottom of the bins andengage the latches so that they may be held in place and support thearticles within the bins. When a person wishes to secure an articlecontained in one of the bins, he drops the proper coin into the chuteand the coin falling down the chute engages the trip lip and rocks thetrip so that the primary tooth is moved out of engagement with the earon the latch hanger. Nhen the trip is rocked as described, the latchspring pulls the latch back through the engagement of the latch arm withthe hanger lip, so that the latch tooth is disengaged from the trap andthe trap is free to open under weight ofthe article contained within thebin, so that the article drops onto the shelf 18 and may be removed bythe purchaser.

lVhen the latch is automatically released as described, the hanger lipengages the secondary trip tooth to prevent the latch from swinging toofar. from its functional position, but sufficiently far to preventreengagement of the latch with the trap, should the latter be m vedupwardly, until the latch is reset.

lVith the parts in this position the trap may be moved back intofunctional position but will not catch on the latch so that it isimpossible to reset the device until the latch mechanism has been reset.The latch mechanism is reset by pulling the latch arm forwardly by thehook 4C1 so that the hanger ear will again engage the primary trip toothand when reset the trap will re'e'ngage the latch tooth and be held inplace; it being apparent that only those authorized may be supplied witha key for setting the latch and that such person is usually the one whois supplied with articles to refill the bins.

When it is desired to remove the collected coins from the device the binwithin which the key slot is located is opened and the key inserted torock the bell-crank lever and lift the lock bar so that the cash boX maybe free to swing outwardlyand expose the coins to the collector.

Having thus described my invention, What c zi Ilt Y r a c c sire -osecure l 11 m as v the em, nl le t by Letters-Patent, is

1. An automatic vending machine comprising a releasable door member, alatch comprising a latch ear and a hook member adapted for holdingengagement with the door, a trip having teeth adapted for independentengagement with the latch ear, yielding means for-urging the latch torelease position, and yielding means for urging the trip to holdingengagement with the latch ear.

2. The combination with a trap door, of a latch comprising a pivotallymounted body member, having a retaining lip and a trip ear, a hookmember pivotally mounted on the body member between the lip and the car,a spring connected with said hook member at the one side of its pivotalmounting whereby the latch body member and hook are yieldingly urged torelease position, and whereby the hook member may pivot in the oppositedirection independently of the latch body member, and a trip adapted forholding engagement with the latch ear to hold the latch against thetension of said spring.

3. The combination with a trap door, of a latch comprising a pivotallymounted body member, having a retaining lip and a trip ear, a hookmember pivotally mounted on the body member between the lip and the ear,a spring connected with said hook member at one side of its pivotalmounting, whereby the latch .body member and hook are yieldiugly urgedto release position, and whereby the hook member may pivot in theopposite direction independently of the latch body member, and a tripmember having stop portions adapted for independent engagement with thelatch ear, to hold the latch in different positions against the tensionof said spring.

it. An. automatic vending machine having a trap door, a pivotallymounted latch comprising a latch member having a retaining lip and atrip car, a latch arm pivotally mounted on said latch member and adapted"for hearing against said lip at one side of its pivotal point andhaving a hook at the opposite side of its pivotal point adapted to lockthe trap door, a spring connected with the end of the latch arm oppositethe hook and adapted for normally, yieldingly urging the latch toinactive position and for retaining the hook in active position, and atrip member for engaging said trip ear to retain said latch in activeposition against the tension of said spring.

In testimony whereof I aiiix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

CHARLES A. MELGHERT. lVitnesses LYNN A. ROBINSON, LETA E. COATS.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. G.

